Jasper and his group of 20 men had been waiting in the clearing for over 16 hours each day. The optimal hunting time for large predators, the had been hiding from evening to late overnight. They had been using this strategy for the last 3 days. Many of the men had grown impatient, grumbling that the burned ground wasn't a magical beast and just a small wildfire. This was mostly in whimsical comfort however as the burned corpses and charred human flesh that had been brought back to the village were torn and shredded by animals. Perhaps the work of scavengers but many were torn into by large beasts.

A simple wildfire could simply not have killed so much. Perhaps a level 30 Wizard could have done this but why would they bother. All the non-army wizards that Jasper knew were aloof and hated the outdoors, most wizards would never need to stoop so low as to kill peasants and sheep.

Jasper was dragged out of his pondering as one of his scouts came to report.

“Captain, a beast has triggered the alarms. At the moment of triggering the line, it was 200 paces behind our forces.”

“Refocus the men, make sure we have over half our forces looking in the rear direction. It is likely a hunter has traced our scent or mana signatures.” Jasper barked his orders and the men jumped to obey them.

Many of the men were startled at the loud tone, having been drifting off with the inactivity.

It was just over 10 minutes before Jasper and the scouts enhanced vision and senses caught sight of the monster. Many of the men would not see it until it got much closer. It was a small red creature, keeping low to the brushes and sniffing the ground. Focused on trying to find something. It was definitely heading in their direction.

Jasper used his most prized third-tier ability [Beast Knowledge] is parallel with [Identify].

Beast Knowledge - Intelligence Check [100%]

That was good, the beast had lower intelligence than him meaning his ability would work at full power.

[Red Dragon Lv16]

BK - Maturity : Wyrmling

BK - Race : Dragon {S2 V2 D1 I1}

BK - SubRace : Red Dragon {S3 V3 D0 I0}

Beast Knowledge - Status

Strength

Vitality

Dexterity

Intelligence

90

78

50

49

Beast Knowledge - Summary

This beast is young and small for its level. Its high level, low size and aggressive behaviour suggests a short life of conflict. This has led to the size of the beast being large for its age and small for its level. This creature will fall into slumber after levelling up due to excessive stress and growth forced onto its body.

The news that his beast knowledge had given him was extensive. This was a highly aggressive creature, its small body he estimated to be approaching 2 meters in length. For a level 16 dragon, he would expect it to be approaching the size of a farm horse. Its smaller frame would take away from its high strength and give it leverage issues. That was the positive side, the negative side was it would pack a mean punch and be highly manoeuvrable.

It's well-distributed stats suggested a reasonably intelligent creature. Many dumb brutes walked the jungles with nearly all their points spent on strength, making them slow and predictable. Intelligent and agile creatures were often much more dangerous.

While he had been considering the information from his skill the creature had gotten closer. It seemed to know where they were now and phased into the trees. It was unnerving how it could flit around and hide in the shrubs. After not seeing it for over 5 minutes, he was starting to think it had wandered away when it crashed into the shield, a glow in its throat extinguished and a surprised look on its face. It got up and hissed at them.

All the men around him jumped and stared in disbelief at the creature. Even Jasper was surprised to see it appear so close. Jasper whispered to the men to raise their bows slowly. But before they could even twitch everyone was startled into an explosive reaction as a gout of fire erupted from the maw of the creature.

It was an instinctive reaction to humans, a fear of fire. The burning of flesh and scorching of bone. Thankfully for his men, this didn't happen. The barrier that surrounded the ground flared and the fire flowed around the group, burning grass and low hanging branches instead of them.

The archers he had told to raise their bows had now aimed and let loose the first volley of arrows. Many of the men were surprised to see two of the arrows skitter off the scales of the beast. Only one found its mark and sank into flesh. Not even very deep, merely 6 inches or so. The archers stared in disbelief as the skill powered shots were almost ignored by the beast.

The arrow that had landed seemed to piss it off more than wound it. It breathed another blast of fire at them and this time the men had more faith in their magic shield, until the flames hit, they were of a magical nature and burned intensely. The mages cried out as the flames wreathed the barrier, they stumbled and the barrier faltered. It seemed to shatter into floating mana shards and still it burned in the flame. The wizards stumbled.

Jasper reacted, he saw his men. The shield had protected them from the magical fire. But if the creature decided to send another wave of fire it would hit his men full on. He could not allow that, the creature lept. Targeting one of the archers at the front.

Jasper took a huge leap and bounded to meet the creature, its eyes widened as he appeared and swung his gauntleted arm at the beast. It tried to twist out of the way but the lack of mobility in the air and Jasperes superior speed and dexterity made his heavy gauntlet smash the beast in the chest.

The beast let out a yelp and flew backwards, the mighty blow sending it smashing into a thick tree. He heard an audible crack of a rib breaking. The creature got to its feet glaring at him and wheezing.

He raised an eyebrow, the beast was tough. If he had hit a level 16 soldier in the chest with that blow he would have caved his chest in, if the soft flesh even stopped him from punching a hole in their chest.

The dragon went to breathe more fire and a normal blast of orange-yellow flame blasted towards him. He leapt backwards avoiding the flame. While leaping back he drew his shortsword and prepared to end the beast quickly lest it target his men. It was as he had feared, the dragon now over 15 meters away from him switched its attention to some of his men closing in it.

He shouted to his men to keep some distance and spread out, but not fast enough.

A plume of fire roasted the two closest men. They doubled over screaming with their armour faintly glowing and the leather parts smouldering. They may survive with healing but they were clutching at their helmets, faces smoking. The mages were incapacitated or distracted and so they would not receive healing soon. This angered Jasper and he roared at the archers.

“Shoot it, keep your distance and create a large circle. Kilp do magic, kill the little fuck”

Arrows and fire were blasted at the creature in accordance with his commands and the regular soldiers spread out and created a circle around the beast. Another arrow sticks in the dragon's hind leg and it growled. The fire from the mage just washed over the dragon with no visible effect.

“Fucking anything but fire magic you fucking green skin” Jasper yelled at the wizard.

Ice and a cold wind began to blast at the dragon next, this seemed to cause it discomfort and it tried to dodge the cold and ice. Some of the shards whipping to impact its side. A pained yelp was here but no visible damage.

The dragon looked cornered and Jasper felt it mana stir.

“Magic attack, Kilp Shield”

Jasper launched himself at the creature and roared, its head snapped away from its previous target of some of his men and the dragon released a huge blast of dragon fire at him, white-hot flame with a magical red flickering shot towards him. Trusting in the mages ability to protect him he charged straight into the flame.

The shield split the worst of the blast round him and held until the dragon finished spewing fire, it then dissolved away from Jasper as the flames stuck and ate away at the mana in the shield.

The beast recoiled, surprised to see him alive. Now only 10 meters away Jasper used [Dash] sacrificing a large amount of stamina and mana he over doubled his speed closing the gap between the dragon and himself in a second. Many of his men had followed his lead and charged. The dragon decided to avoid him and leapt to the side with an agility that didn't allow him to follow. His sword strike and movement too committed, he ended up slashing a huge gash into the tree where the monster had been.

Jasper looked to his right and saw the dragon rip into the neck of a soldier, goring him and raking the steel of his armour. He was doomed when the dragon ripped out his throat with a chomp of its jaws.

Jasper took another swing at the dragon after a strong lunge forward, but it wasn't fast enough. His caution of hitting the man under the dragon held him back. Another soldier swung at the dragon as it leapt at him to avoid Jaspers strike. The sword scraped along the dragon's side failing to cut or pierce the hide in any way. The dragon swiped a claw at the man's sword arm and Jasper roared with the scream of his soldier as the man's arm was ripped near clean off. The arm hung by a cord of muscle at the joint in his elbow, the broken bone sticking out of the soft spot in his armour. The arm flopped weakly as the man screamed.

The dragon's other claws had raked deep scratched in his armoured stomach and shoulder. The teeth of the dragon had mauled his face but failed to find his throat.

The dragon's wings pumped and provided stability as she leapt further away from him. Landing on the ground now outside there encirclement. With no ally in the path between him and hit Jasper changed up his [Dash] and [Strong Blow] Skills.

With a huge burst of speed, he ran at the dragon roaring. It looked back at him as the sword came down on the dragon's side. It was slow to react, the recent exertion leaving the beast breathless. Despite the beast's best efforts to dodge, the sword sliced through the muscles of its flank and hit the hip bone beneath.

With an indignant roar, the beast flapped and jumped trying to gain distance. He chased but, even wounded the dragon was fast. It glided over the terrain in and out of bushes and hedges that he simply could not follow through with his large stature and he decided to give up the chase. His men needed his leadership and the beast was well and truly run off.

He retired to the carnage of his company and tried to restore order. He had spent a huge amount of stamina and most of his small reserve of mana. The shouting and screaming of his men made his heart ache more than the stamina use. That beast was out there, and for his men and mission, he would find and kill it. Gripping his sword tight he made his way to comfort the dying and injured.